Tom Bird, the youngest competitor within the 2023 Defender Burghley Horse Trials area, has made his dream a actuality by recording his first five-star completion.
Tom, 21, and the previous hunt horse Rebel Rhyme jumped within the morning session and head home with their first five-star below their belts.
Watch Tom Bird talk about his first Burghley within the video under
“It’s been brilliant. I can’t fault him, he’s been super all week,” mentioned Tom, of his first Burghley Horse Trials expertise.
“The showjumping didn’t quite go to plan today. But to finish is a massive achievement and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
He added: “He was leaping very well within the warm-up, I believe if I’m trustworthy, I went in a bit bit nervous, a bit quiet, and had the primary three fences down, which was as a result of me. I’ve by no means jumped in an environment like that and went in a bit quiet, which was disappointing.
We picked it again up and bought leaping, then I simply hit a extremely improper distance all the way down to an enormous oxer. But he’s come out, truly jumped very nicely and made a good condition on the good day and to complete is a superb achievement.”
The pair added 27.6 showjumping faults, a mixture of leaping and time, to their two-phase whole, to provide them a ending rating of 121.9 and beneficial expertise on the top-level.
In a H&H characteristic forward of Burghley, Tom revealed that the plan with 13-year-old “Hughie” had been to compete at novice stage “and maybe an intermediate”, however the gelding exceeded all expectations.
The pair had been second within the under-25 nationwide championship at Bramham and their different CCI4*-L type consists of seventh at Ballindenisk in April and tenth at Kronenburg in 2022.
“It’s been a journey, that’s for sure. We bought him off the hunting field; he had become too excited for that job and needed a career change, so I was very grateful to my uncle David Kerry for helping us buy him, as he’s all we could afford,” mentioned Tom.
“He completely ate up the cross-country course yesterday, he didn’t deserve his 20 penalties [at the Leaf Pit] – he truly turned too nicely and jumped the massive a part of the shoulder brush the improper aspect of the flag.
“He came out today and I made a couple of mistakes early in our showjumping round, but got better and I’m just super proud of him.”
Tom added that the Irish-bred gray “loved to learn and wants to please”.
“He finds some of it not as easy as other horses might, but he will always give 100% and that’s what makes him so special,” he mentioned.
“To come and tick off our first Burghley is a massive achievement and hopefully we will nail it all ready for Badminton next year.”
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